Pulse
by camteaa
Summary: FINISHED. A demon shoved into skin, blood and bone. Her hate has never run this deep. Let it go already. She will break. An InoSasuke request from Xxthruthfull liarxX. Two shot.
1. Chapter 1

SweetStealer: A request from **Xxtruthfull liarxX**. Here you go darlin'! An InoSasuke. I've been in a nice dark mood, so here's an angst for the whole world.

...Or something.

Notes:// Kinda bloody, ending twist. A TWO-SHOT PEOPLE.

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Smoke billowed from the Hokage's palace, while flames licked Konoha village, engulfing it in smouldering rubble and the smothering black of smog. The dry, raspy throats of victims were slit so blood poured onto the dusty ground. The drought had done nothing but hinder the village and serve as a liability.

Her heart was pounding in her ears. Her lily white skin was broken with ragged cuts that tattooed her body. This was her war paint. Her cracked hands were sweaty as she clenched the innocent kunai to her chest, marring her purple shirt with a long crimson stain of someone else's blood.

A stranger's blood.

Papers littered the ground, flickering like torches, others turning to ash as she raced past them, her eyes watering from the smoke. A purple bandana was covering her mouth, but it did not stop her from wheezing out the fumes. Her once butter colored hair was filthy and dark with sludge and dirt. Her bandages and skirt were caked with mud and the horrors of past fights: her blood and the blood of her enemies.

The sun was bleeding red rays as the battle raged on home grounds, still hot and blazing like no tomorrow. This would last a long while. Screaming...bleeding...slicing...it was all around her. The wailing of dying children she couldn't stop to save. The mothers who was brutally torn from their families. The fathers, including her own, that were fighting and dying...

They monsters were here...surrounding the village. Dark, mutated creatures with gnashing fangs and razor claws waiting to drag them into the fires of Hell. She was scared. These were demons, flitting from shadow to shadows, stalking their prey until the opportune moment. Then...they would attack. Mutilated people flying through the air. It was gruesome. To think, these were people...

_No. Not people. Hellions shoved into skin, blood, and bones. _

_They will never be human._

Maybe that's why she had no problem killing them and then running onto her targets. She couldn't bare to think of them as people. Not after what she had seen them do to her family...to her friends.

She shut her blue eyes and felt the tears fly off her face as she began to recall the surreal horrors she had just witnessed. She winced as her legs screamed for mercy.

But no.

She couldn't stop.

She wouldn't.

Not until he was good and dead.

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Ino Yamanaka would have given anything to erase the moments in time she had just witnessed. The battle, still fully raging a little ways behind her, had been going on for two whole days. It seemed like it would not let up anytime soon.

She grit her teeth in pain as the burning stitches in her side increased as her body pleaded with her to rest.

"No. No. NO." she whispered like a mantra, trying to keep herself conscious.

She finally reached the full fledged battle; their old training grounds. It was ironic really, that the nine of them would be fighting together, in a place where they had learned all their skills from. Now came the real test.

Ino charged in, the erratic movements giving relief to her body who seemed to want to shut down after the automatic movements of running. She drove her kunai into the throat of one attacker, amazed at their ferocious strength. Marks were covering his face; a sign of the first stage of the cured seal mark.

Yes, Konoha's attacker was none other then Orochimaru and his band of miscreant monsters. Driven from Hell to terrorize the living, they quickly began their attack on the easiest prey: children.

Screaming all the time she fought her opponents, Ino furiously made marks into the man's skin, the warm blood coating her arms. She cast a look over to her other friends.

Her eyes widened.

It couldn't be.

_Impossible._

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"Stay with me, Sakura!" the panicked voice cried out desperately.

Ino Yamanaka had pressed her chakra encircled hands over the dead body of Sakura Haruno. Empty, jade green eyes had already stared back into Ino's watery blue orbs as crystal tears fell onto her best friend's chalk white face.

This was wrong.

This couldn't be happening.

It was just so...surreal...

"DAMN YOU SAKURA, LIVE!" Ino shrieked, forcing her chakra ignited hands to her comrade's chest.

She looked up helplessly, but her others allies were busy. She was lucky enough to go unseen from the enemy's eye for now. Slaughtering like animals...this occurred on both sides she realized.

_How brutal are we._

But this was just-

Sakura was..._dying_.

The battlefield had always been an unpleasant sight for Ino. No matter the mission, no matter what was a stake, she always hated the sight and stench of dead bodies and rotting flesh. It was disgusting.

Her weak heart was now heavy and her knees were trembling from exahustion. This was not how it was supposed to end. It was ending in a wreckage. The attack had just been so sudden...there was no way in hell anyone could have stopped that number of ninja.

And yet...

"Ino..." Sakura whispered hoarsely.

"Don't talk. Save your strength." Ino gasped out, trying to close a nasty gash on Sakura's middle.

As a medic-nin, she was charged with healing those who were wounded, the occasional fight when needed. She heard news from her patients that they were winning.

Sakura, her best friend for many long years, had disappeared in the chaos, running everywhere playing the guardian angel Ino knew she could never be.

But that was it. Nothing else could have been done to save Sakura. There was too much blood loss. Too much energy that had fled from the her body.

The pinkette smiled, willed herself to grasp Ino's hand and whispered,

"When you see him...When you see..._**Sasuke**_...tell him..."

Sakura had never finished her sentence.

Despite her exhausted and anxiety ridden body, Ino ran from the corpse.

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Friends.

Ino always treasured friends.

The guys she had treasured as friends had always been important to her, especially a certain Uchiha. This was where the affectionate rivalry started

Sakura versus Ino.

Ah, the never ending chaos.

But now...at last...Ino began to _**hate**_ Sasuke Uchiha.

_I wasted my life on him. _

Still, it was hard to let him go.

Panting, Ino skid to a halt, kicking up dust in the process. The bodies of her friends...the ones she had treasured the most, were lying there on the ground, being robbed of what little life and air could reach their bodies by defending themselves.

Rushing, rushing, rushing...

With a gasp, Ino fell to the ground and finally into the dirt, where she watched helplessly as her friends defended themselves for the last time through bloodstained foliage.

Konoha wasn't so green anymore.

As Ino strained her eyes through the thick smoke, she saw two figures, slim and beautiful, fighting back to back. A little ways from them were two young men. Ino's voice got caught in her throat as she tried to call out to them.

TenTen and Hinata.

The weapon mistress was sailing through the air and finally hit a tree trunk and there was a sickening crack from her ribs. Ino winced as she tried to crawl to her friends. She suddenly stopped when there was an inhumane cry from one of the men.

Neji Hyuuga was crying.

Pale eyes flashed with hatred as he spiraled chakra from his palms, severing his enemies from the oxygen. He was slowly making his way to towards Hinata who was shaking violently as Lee served as her temporary defense.

She fell.

Finally, Ino reached TenTen and placed her crimson hands on the girl's forehead. The damaged girl groaned in protest, but Ino tried to summon all her chakra...if she could at least save her...She didn't want TenTen to leave like Sakura.

"TenTen..." Ino whispered, hoarsely.

The brunette looked up and smiled, blood caked around her cracked lips. The gash on her forehead was enormous.

"Help us..." TenTen murmured before struggling to get up, much to Ino's horror.

Amazed, Ino watched as the girl charged back into the hot fray and began a massacre. Ino shuddered as stepped back. Neji gave a cry.

Why didn't she move to help them like TenTen asked? Her traumatized eyes widened even more as she saw the faint gleam of a stroke come down.

"BEHIND YOU!" she screamed, her clear cerulean eyes blazing with terror.

Startled, Hinata and TenTen turned to face her, their faces pale and sick. However, there was a soft gasp from TenTen and the murmured cry of Hinata as blades were plunged into their backs.

Hinata Hyuuga, a sweet gentle heiress that Ino came to love as her own sister, was lying face down in the mud, her cream colored eyes closed, trying to regain her senses after killing so many people. She was barely breathing, if she was breathing at all.

TenTen was a bloody wreck. The tomboyish, 'I'll-do-whatever-the-hell-I-want-to' girl, had her right arm of her chest, the last bit of her energy was dispelled into her fingers trying to dislodge a kunai over her heart. She was the tiger of their group. She would be _**damned **_if she would die with unceremonious things in her body.

Lee, hopeless Rock Lee, was fighting till the end. His beautiful round eyes were closed in intense concentration. His lithe body swayed right and left; dodging, ducking, hitting...

Neji was dispelling blue chakra right and left, trying to get to his cousin and his comrades before they-

_No. It's too late. _

Dispair met Ino's eyes, and she began to scream loud enough to wake the dead.

Only it didn't.

---------------------------------

TenTen and Hinata had been fighting side by side, until the very last. But their time had come had last, Ino knew. She watched their fall from grace and she watched them breathe their last.

It took bullets, kunai and shuriken to stop TenTen. The weapon mistress was the fighting machine, a tiger in the making. Her jutsus, her speed, her skill...Ino knew she could never match it.

So why was Ino still alive, while she looked at TenTen's body?

Why was she, the useless medic-nin, still breathing in the putrid air filled with the rotting bodies of dead comrades and enemies alike?

Why was TenTen the one with the kunai in her chest, blood seeping from every place possible, and her life fading fast?

Ino raised her head, long enough to see Neji weeping over his little cousin's body and gently close TenTen's eyelids with Lee's help. But Hinata struck her the most. The sight of Hinata Hyuuga was just unbearable to all who knew her well.

It had taken everything to stop the young Hyuuga heiress. Her body was now cold and lifeless; pale. Ino bit back a sob as she watched Neji wail out his hatred at the sight of Hinata's body and her cream colored eyes close forever.

Was she the only girl left?

_What am I doing here?_

Pounding her fist into the ground, she clutched at the dirt and gravel madly, flinging it everywhere. Death encircled the camp. Faces of once living people stared back at her with lifeless eyes, laughing at her existence. Ino was angry. She was angry with herself.

"Ino..."

The blonde girl looked up.

"Pineapple head." she smiled, wearily, with affection coating her voice.

Shikamaru was leaning heavily on a sword, bloodstained and bent over. Kunai stuck out of him like needles on a pincushion, and his hair was down. He was breathing hard, and carrying a person on his shoulders.

Sabaku no Temari.

Ino knit her brow, sweat dripped down into the corners of her dirty eyes and down to her lips. She couldn't tell if she was tasting sweat, blood or tears. They were all salty to her. Shikamaru cast her a weary look.

"C-can you help her?" he whispered, setting Temari down.

The fallen blonde groaned and Ino dragged herself into a kneeling position. She realized, her own body was injured too. Blood dripped from her forehead and into her eyes. Shikamaru collapsed in a heap, his eyes closing.

Ino quickly scanned Temari and healed her minor wounds with quiet ease. The sand nin winced and looked over at the blonde medic-nin over her.

"Oh. It's you." she laughed hoarsely, coughing up blood.

"Be still." Ino instructed with as much command as she could muster in her weakened state.

"Fine, fine...where is Shikamaru?" she hissed as the sting of chakra hit her abrasions.

Ino looked over to her sleeping comrade.

"Shikamaru?"

No answer.

"Shikamaru-kun, Temari is awake now..." Ino crawled over to her friend, but Temari beat her to him.

"Shikamaru? Shikamaru...!" Temari cried, using whatever strength was left in her body to shake the man in her grasp.

Ino gave a cry.

She had not seen that half of Shikamaru's back had been torn off. Temari screamed and flung herself over Shikamaru's body. Ino, horrified, pulled herself up and stumbled backwards.

The girl was always running, running, running.

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Reviews would be love.


	2. Chapter 2

SweetStealer: Ok, last and final chapter! I hope you like because to me, this ending kinda SUCKS. But that's all I could brainstorm with at the moment and I really tried to make this dark and evil and whatnot...erm...yeah.

Notes:// This is staying a two shot.

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_To bleed is to be human._

"Going somewhere, Ino?"

She dug her heels into the dirt, held hostage by anger and anxiety. Hands shaking, she slowly turned around, her blue eyes narrowed in disgust. It disguised her feelings of nervousness and unrivaled fear. Biting her lip, she let the blood run into her mouth where she promptly spit it out in a direct disrespect for the figure in front of her.

Ah.

The Uchiha.

His black hair was caked with blood and sweat. His ebony eyes bore sharply into her, making her trembled with anger. She felt him demean her with his haughty gaze. She took in his uniform, a white cloak, stained with god knows what, and black shirt and pants.

Sasuke watched her, growing angry at her furious silence.

"I _said_, going somewhere, Ino?" he hissed arrogantly, leaning on his sword in a way Ino found debonair and mocking.

"I've found my target." she spat out, her hatred lacing every word.

"You want to kill me, Ino?" Sasuke smirked, sitting down on the rock he stood so proudly on.

"No, I want to mutilate your face, and then rip out every organ in your body. Then I'll kill you." she whispered vilely.

"What description." the man yawned, and slid down the rock on his feet, his katana scratching the surface producing a sound that made the girl cringe.

He stood before her, narrowed his eyes, and smiled.

"You won't win."

At that, Ino charged, with an inhuman cry and lunged a kunai into his chest. Looking down at the blood seeping from his chest, he smiled and calmly pulled it out. Ino stumbled back in surprise. Narrowing her furious blue eyes, she charged again. He evaded her attacks with such ease that she thought that he was doing this deliberately. Breathing heavily, she drew back and formed a familiar hand seal.

As her fingers delicately performed her seals, Sasuke raised an eyebrow. Then, with a smirk, walked up to her. He rested his hands on hers and brought her hands down, roughly.

"That won't work on me now."

She did it anyway.

"SHINTENSHIN!"

Sasuke, seeing this familiar sight, sighed and let her into his mind. It was more of a battle of wills anyway, and he knew that Ino was already broken.

----

It was dark in Sasuke's mind. Ino wasn't surprised at all. Why should she be? This was Sasuke Uchiha. He was mentally scarred and psychotic. This wasn't exactly _new_ information.

However...taking over his mind was another thing.

As Ino stared at the blackened interior of her enemy's mind, she realized that Sasuke was right. This couldn't work on him. His center of mind and his level of concentration far overpowered hers. He could push her out at any given second.

She was trapped in his mind.

"Shit." Ino whispered, beginning to perform the seals to undo herself from his mind.

"I told you Ino..." Sasuke laughed as he began to glide in from the shadows.

The girl stopped and dropped her hands to her sides. The blackness was cold and his red Sharingan eyes were even colder. Ino stood her ground. If she was to die, she would die knowing she tried.

But still...she just _had_ to know...

"Why did you leave us, Sasuke?" she whispered, all hate rushing from her voice.

A little startled, Sasuke looked at her and stared. Locked in an intense staring match, the two were evenly silent until Sasuke finally whispered,

"I needed to know..."

His words faded off into a disturbing hush until Ino whispered back,

"Needed to know what?"

His eyes faded into black, while the walls seeped a bloody red. His gaze faltered when he looked at her and she bit her lip.

"If I could beat Itachi. If Orochimaru could give me the right amount of help I needed."

Ino's brow furrowed and she turned angry again.

"LIAR! It was so easy for you to leave us! To leave me!"

"Listen to yourself, Ino!" Sasuke hissed back. " What do you know about me? NOTHING! Leaving my home was the hardest thing I ever had to do. If I couldn't prove to myself that I could accomplish that, I could never beat Itachi."

Ino quieted herself back down and snapped,

"What was it so hard? Couldn't leave the dust mites?"

His eyes flashed when his snarled,

"I couldn't leave my_**mother**_"

The reticence was almost permanent when Ino finally computed what he had just said. She looked at him dumbly while he colored with rage and having spilled one of his most precious secrets.

"Y-your mother..." she repeated.

"She was the only one...she was buried there. She took care of me there. She loved me." Sasuke mused, not really paying her any attention.

When he realized whom he was talking to, he blinked and stopped his rambling. Ino, full of spite, lashed out,

"So you left us, to see how much power you had. If you could leave us, you had power. If you couldn't, you were weak."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Yes."

"That's stupid." she snapped.

"What do you know?" he muttered.

Ino blinked and stopped her upcoming response. She realized...they sounded just like kids...no fighting, no swearing...just arguing.

"You mother...wouldn't want you killing like this. You're burning her grave. Your old home is burning even as we speak." Ino said, quietly.

Sasuke looked at her, a flicker of despair filling his eyes.

"I know."

"So why-"

"You wouldn't-you don't understand."

Ino backed off. They watched each other again, the walls of Sasuke's mind changing colors, matching his emotions...his worries...

"Why kill Sakura?"

"I hate her." he stated, simply.

"Will you kill me?" she asked, forcing her voice not to tremble.

"Yes." he said, without hesitation. "Now leave."

Ino nodded, and retreated back into the harsh reality. As she was leaving, she caught Sasuke with the tiniest drops of water in his eyes.

----

She didn't even have time to regain her footing. Sasuke was already to her, his sword gleaming in the firelight. She caught the tears in his eyes and let her own fall down her cheeks. It was coming so fast...so cruelly.

In an instant, Ino felt the sharp pain in her stomach and didn't need to look down to know that she was dying.

"Sasuke...kun..." she murmured.

The boy looked at her and pulled out his sword. He held her.

And then they stared at each other, feeling the coldness of their bodies...

Suddenly.

So soft, so unexpected, were his lips upon her own; the last kiss Ino even felt.

It was bitter.

His was the last embrace she ever had. It was warm and delicate, almost unsure. Ino knew he was still young...not innocent, but young. Sasuke looked at her and shut her eyes.

With her last bit of strength, Ino grabbed his wrist and he pulled her to his chest. She listened to his heart, and felt his rapid pulse beating against her fingers. Finally, her fingers dropped, her eyes closed, and she lay still.

Sasuke watched her bleed life, and breathed out.

Ino had no pulse, her certainty of life stripped clean away. Sasuke saw two of her fingers were still attached to his wrist, feeling his from the dead. As far as Sasuke was concerned, he had no pulse. He had given up all human nature a long time ago.

He fled the scene.

Konoha burned.

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Sweets: It's done! I hope you liked it! Much love to **xXthruthfull liarxX**! Huggles!

Reviews _**are **_love.


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